Channel monitoring indication method, terminal, and network device

ABSTRACT

A channel monitoring indication method, a terminal, and a network device are provided. The method includes: monitoring a first physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and if non-scheduling downlink control information DCI is received on the first PDCCH, determining, based on the non-scheduling DCI, whether to monitor a second PDCCH.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of InternationalApplication No. PCT/CN2019/095365 filed on Jul. 10, 2019, which claimspriority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201810776801.5, filed inChina on Jul. 13, 2018, which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, andin particular, to a channel monitoring indication method, a terminal,and a network device.

BACKGROUND

In a mobile communications system, a monitoring period, a monitoringoffset (offset), and monitoring duration (duration) of a physicaldownlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH) areall notified by a network device to a terminal by radio resource control(Radio Resource Control, RRC) signaling.

However, the PDCCH monitoring period configured by the network devicemay be inappropriate. For example, if a service packet arrival period is20 ms, but the PDCCH monitoring period configured by the network deviceis 2 ms, the terminal is caused to blindly detect the PDCCH frequently,without detecting grant information (including an uplink grant and adownlink grant). Therefore, PDCCH blind detection performed by theterminal based on an inappropriate configuration is disadvantageous forpower saving of the terminal.

SUMMARY

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure provides achannel monitoring indication method, applied to a terminal andincluding:

monitoring a first physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and

if non-scheduling downlink control information DCI is received on thefirst PDCCH, determining, based on the non-scheduling DCI, whether tomonitor a second PDCCH.

According to a second aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure furtherprovides a terminal, including:

a first monitoring module, adapted to monitor a first physical downlinkcontrol channel PDCCH; and

a second monitoring module, adapted to: if non-scheduling downlinkcontrol information DCI is received on the first PDCCH, determine, basedon the non-scheduling DCI, whether to monitor a second PDCCH.

According to a third aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure provides aterminal. The terminal includes a processor, a memory, and a computerprogram stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor.When the computer program is executed by the processor, the steps of theforegoing channel monitoring indication method are implemented.

According to a fourth aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure providesa channel monitoring indication method, applied to a network device andincluding:

sending a first physical downlink control channel PDCCH, where the firstPDCCH carries non-scheduling downlink control information DCI, and thenon-scheduling DCI is used to indicate whether a terminal is to monitora second PDCCH.

According to a fifth aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure provides anetwork device, including:

a first sending module, adapted to send a first physical downlinkcontrol channel PDCCH, where the first PDCCH carries non-schedulingdownlink control information DCI, and the non-scheduling DCI is used toindicate whether a terminal is to monitor a second PDCCH.

According to a sixth aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure furtherprovides a network device. The network device includes a processor, amemory, and a computer program stored in the memory and capable ofrunning on the processor. When the processor executes the computerprogram, the steps of the foregoing channel monitoring indication methodapplied to a network device side are implemented.

According to a seventh aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure providesa computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage mediumstores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed bya processor, the steps of the foregoing channel monitoring indicationmethod applied to a network device side are implemented.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of thisdisclosure more clearly, the following briefly describes theaccompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments of thisdisclosure. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the followingdescription show merely some embodiments of this disclosure, and aperson of ordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawings fromthese accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 presents a block diagram of a mobile communications system towhich an embodiment of this disclosure may be applied;

FIG. 2 presents a schematic flowchart of a channel monitoring indicationmethod applied to a terminal according to an embodiment of thisdisclosure;

FIG. 3 presents a schematic modular structural diagram of a terminalaccording to an embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 4 presents a block diagram of a terminal according to an embodimentof this disclosure;

FIG. 5 presents a schematic flowchart of a channel monitoring indicationmethod applied to a network device according to an embodiment of thisdisclosure;

FIG. 6 presents a schematic modular structural diagram of a networkdevice according to an embodiment of this disclosure; and

FIG. 7 presents a block diagram of a network device according to anembodiment of this disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following describes exemplary embodiments of this disclosure in moredetail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although theexemplary embodiments of this disclosure are shown in the accompanyingdrawings, it should be understood that this disclosure may beimplemented in various forms and should not be limited by theembodiments set forth herein. On the contrary, the embodiments areprovided to enable a more thorough understanding of this disclosure andcompletely convey the scope of this disclosure to a person skilled inthe art.

In the specification and claims of this application, the terms such as“first” and “second” are intended to distinguish between similar objectsbut do not necessarily indicate a specific order or sequence. It shouldbe understood that the numbers used in this way is interchangeable inappropriate circumstances so that the embodiments of this applicationdescribed herein can be implemented in other orders than the orderillustrated or described herein. Moreover, the terms “include”,“contain” and any other variants mean to cover the non-exclusiveinclusion, for example, a process, method, system, product, or devicethat includes a list of steps or units is not necessarily limited tothose units, but may include other units not expressly listed orinherent to such a process, method, system, product, or device. The term“and/or” used in this specification and claims indicates at least one ofconnected objects.

Technologies described in this specification are not limited to a longterm evolution (Long Time Evolution, LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-Advanced,LTE-A) system, and may also be applied to various wirelesscommunications systems, for example, code division multiple access (CodeDivision Multiple Access, CDMA), time division multiple access (TimeDivision Multiple Access, TDMA), frequency division multiple access(Frequency Division Multiple Access, FDMA), orthogonal frequencydivision multiple access (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access,OFDMA), single-carrier frequency-division multiple access(Single-carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access, SC-FDMA), and othersystems. The terms “system” and “network” are usually usedinterchangeably. The technologies described in this specification may beused in the foregoing systems and radio technologies, and may also beused in other systems and radio technologies. However, in the followingdescriptions, a new radio (New Radio, NR) system is described for anillustration purpose, and NR terms are used in most of the followingdescriptions, although these technologies may also be applied to othersystems than the NR system application.

Examples provided in the following descriptions are not intended tolimit the scope, applicability, or configuration described in theclaims. Functions and arrangements of discussed elements may be changedwithout departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure. Variousexamples may be omitted or replaced properly, or various procedures orcomponents may be added. For example, the described method may beperformed in an order different from the described order, and steps maybe added, omitted, or combined. In addition, features described withreference to some examples may be combined in other examples.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a wireless communications system towhich an embodiment of this disclosure may be applied. The wirelesscommunications system includes a terminal 11 and a network device 12.The terminal 11 may also be referred to as a terminal device or userequipment (User Equipment, UE). The terminal 11 may be a terminal-sidedevice such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer (Tablet PersonalComputer), a laptop computer (Laptop Computer), a personal digitalassistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a mobile Internet device(Mobile Internet Device, MID), a wearable device (Wearable Device), or avehicle-mounted device. It should be noted that a specific type of theterminal 11 is not limited in this embodiment of this disclosure. Thenetwork device 12 may be a base station or a core network. The basestation may be a 5G base station or a base station of a later release(for example, a gNB or a 5G NR NB), or a base station in anothercommunications system (for example, an eNB, a wireless local areanetwork (Wireless Local Area Network, WLAN) access point, or anotheraccess point). The base station may be referred to as a NodeB, anevolved NodeB, an access point, a base transceiver station (BaseTransceiver Station, BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, abasic service set (Basic Service Set, BSS), an extended service set(Extended Service Set, ESS), a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a homeNodeB, a home evolved NodeB, a WLAN access point, a Wireless Fidelity(Wireless Fidelity, Wi-Fi) node, or another appropriate term in the art.As long as a same technical effect is achieved, the base station is notlimited to a specific technical term. It should be noted that only abase station in an NR system is used as an example in this embodiment ofthis disclosure, but a specific type of the base station is not limited.

Under control of a base station controller, the base station maycommunicate with the terminal 11. In various examples, the base stationcontroller may be a part of the core network or some base stations. Somebase stations may communicate control information or user data with thecore network by using backhauls. In some examples, some of these basestations may communicate with each other directly or indirectly by usingbackhaul links. The backhaul links may be wired or wirelesscommunications links. The wireless communications system may supportoperations on multiple carriers (wave signals of different frequencies).A multi-carrier transmitter can transmit modulated signals on themultiple carriers simultaneously. For example, multi-carrier signalsmodulated by using various radio technologies may be transmitted on eachcommunications link. Each modulated signal may be sent on differentcarriers and may carry control information (for example, a referencesignal or a control channel), overhead information, data, and the like.

The base station may perform wireless communication with the terminal 11by using one or more access point antennas. Each base station mayprovide communication coverage for a corresponding coverage area of thebase station. A coverage area of an access point may be divided intosectors forming only a part of the coverage area. The wirelesscommunications system may include different types of base stations (forexample, a macro base station, a micro base station, or a picocell basestation). The base station may also use different radio technologies,for example, a cell or WLAN radio access technology. The base stationmay be associated with a same or different access networks or operatordeployments. Coverage areas of different base stations (includingcoverage areas of base stations of a same type or different types,coverage areas using a same radio technology or different radiotechnologies, or coverage areas of a same access network or differentaccess networks) may overlap each other.

A communications link in the wireless communications system may includean uplink for carrying uplink (Uplink, UL) transmission (for example,from the terminal 11 to the network device 12) or a downlink forcarrying downlink (Downlink, DL) transmission (for example, from thenetwork device 12 to the terminal 11). UL transmission may also bereferred to as reverse link transmission, and DL transmission may alsobe referred to as forward link transmission.

An embodiment of this disclosure provides a channel monitoringindication method, applied to a terminal. As shown in FIG. 2, the methodincludes the following steps.

Step 21: Monitor a first physical downlink control channel PDCCH.

A monitoring parameter of the first PDCCH is configured by a networkdevice; and the monitoring parameter includes at least one of amonitoring period, a monitoring offset, and monitoring duration.

Step 22: If non-scheduling downlink control information DCI is receivedon the first PDCCH, determine, based on the non-scheduling DCI, whetherto monitor a second PDCCH.

The non-scheduling (non-Scheduling) downlink control information(Downlink Control Information, DCI) may indicate whether a terminal isto monitor the second PDCCH. Because the non-scheduling DCI dynamicallyindicates a monitoring behavior of the terminal, unnecessary PDCCHmonitoring performed by the terminal can be avoided, and powerconsumption of the terminal is reduced.

It should be noted that a manner of determining a monitoring behavior onthe first PDCCH may be the same as or different from a manner ofdetermining a monitoring behavior on the second PDCCH. For example, themonitoring behavior on the first PDCCH may be determined based onnon-scheduling DCI on a previous PDCCH, or the monitoring behavior onthe first PDCCH is determined based on target signaling (such as RRCsignaling).

Further, after step 21, the method further includes: if thenon-scheduling DCI is not received on the first PDCCH, monitoring thesecond PDCCH based on received target signaling, where the targetsignaling is different from the non-scheduling DCI, and the targetsignaling is used to indicate a monitoring parameter related to thesecond PDCCH. The monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCHincludes at least one of a monitoring period, a monitoring offset(offset), and monitoring duration (duration). Herein, the targetsignaling includes but is not limited to a medium access control (MediumAccess Control, MAC) control element (Control Element, CE), RRCsignaling, or the like. Using the RRC signaling as an example, theterminal monitors the second PDCCH based on a search space (searchspace) monitoring parameter configured by using the RRC signaling.

The second PDCCH in this embodiment of this disclosure corresponds to atleast one DCI format (format), and/or the second PDCCH corresponds to atleast one search space. DCI formats include but are not limited to theformats shown in the following Table 1.

TABLE 1 DCI format (format) Meaning 0_0 Scheduling of physical uplinkshared channel (Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH) in one cell 0_1Scheduling of PUSCH in one cell 1_0 Scheduling of physical downlinkshared channel (Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH) in one cell 1_1Scheduling of PDSCH in one cell 2_0 Notifying a group of UEs of the slotformat 2_1 Notifying a group of UEs of the physical resource blocks(Physical Resource Block, PRB) and OFDM symbols where UE may assume thatno downlink transmission is intended for the UE 2_2 Transmission ofTransmit power control TPC commands for physical uplink control channel(Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH) and PUSCH 2_3 Transmission of agroup of TPC commands for sounding reference signal (Sounding ReferenceSignal, SRS) transmissions by one or more UEs

DCI formats 0_0, 0_1, 1_0, and 1_1 are scheduling DCI, and other DCIformats are non-scheduling DCI.

Further, a system supports but is not limited to the following differenttypes of PDCCH search spaces (Search space):

1. Type0-PDCCH common search space, where this type of search space isdefined for a PDCCH corresponding to remaining minimum systeminformation (Remaining Minimum System Information, RMSI), and a downlinkcontrol information (Downlink Control Information, DCI) format (format)carried on a PDCCH detected in this type of search space carries acyclic redundancy check (Cyclic Redundancy Check, CRC) scrambled(scrambled) by a system information radio network temporary identifier(System Information Radio Network Temporary Identifier, SI-RNTI)corresponding to a primary cell (Primary Cell, PCell);

2. Type0A-PDCCH common search space, where this type of search space isdefined for a PDCCH corresponding to other system information (OtherSystem Information, OSI), and a DCI format carried on a PDCCH detectedin this type of search space carries a CRC scrambled by an SI-RNTIcorresponding to a primary cell PCell;

3. Type1-PDCCH common search space, where this type of search space isdefined for an ordinary PDCCH (or referred to as a normal PDCCH), and aDCI format carried on a PDCCH detected in this type of search spacecarries a CRC scrambled by a random access radio network temporaryidentifier (Random Access Radio Network Temporary Identifier, RA-RNTI),a temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (Temporary CellRadio Network Temporary Identifier, TC-RNTI), or a cell radio networktemporary identifier (Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier, C-RNTI)corresponding to a primary cell PCell;

4. Type2-PDCCH common search space, where a DCI format carried on aPDCCH detected in this type of search space carries a CRC scrambled by apaging radio network temporary identifier (Paging Radio NetworkTemporary Identifier, P-RNTI) corresponding to a primary cell PCell;

5. Type3-PDCCH common search space, where a DCI format carried on aPDCCH detected in this type of search space carries a CRC scrambled byan interruption radio network temporary identifier (Interruption RadioNetwork Temporary Identifier, INT-RNTI), a slot format indication radionetwork temporary identifier (Slot Format Indication Radio NetworkTemporary Identifier, SFI-RNTI), a transmit power control (TransmitPower Control, TPC) for PUSCH radio network temporary identifier (TPCfor PUSCH Radio Network Temporary Identifier, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI), a TPC forPUCCH radio network temporary identifier (TPC for PUCCH Radio NetworkTemporary Identifier, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI), a C-RNTI, a configured schedulingradio network temporary identifier (Configured Scheduling Radio NetworkTemporary Identifier, CS-RNTI), or a semi persistent scheduling-radionetwork temporary identifier (Semi persistent scheduling Radio NetworkTemporary Identifier, SPS-RNTI); and

6. UE-specific search space (UE-specific search space), where a DCIformat carried on a PDCCH detected in this type of search space carriesa CRC scrambled by a C-RNTI, a CS-RNTI, or an SP-RNTI.

The second PDCCH in this embodiment of this disclosure corresponds to atleast one of the foregoing search spaces.

In addition, the cyclic redundancy check CRC of the non-scheduling DCIin this embodiment of this disclosure is scrambled by using a targetradio network temporary identifier RNTI, and the target RNTI is a cellradio network temporary identifier C-RNTI or a dedicated RNTI.

After step 21, the method further includes: if the non-scheduling DCI isreceived on the first PDCCH, feeding back acknowledgement ACKinformation; or if the non-scheduling DCI is not received on the firstPDCCH, feeding back negative acknowledgement NACK information. To bespecific, if it is defined that the terminal sends only the ACKinformation, the terminal feeds back the acknowledgement ACK informationwhen the terminal has received the non-scheduling DCI on the firstPDCCH; or does not send any feedback information when the terminal hasnot received the non-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH. If it is definedthat the terminal sends only the NACK information, the terminal does notsend any feedback information when the terminal has received thenon-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH, or feeds back the NACKinformation when the terminal has not received the non-scheduling DCI onthe first PDCCH. If it is defined that the terminal may not only sendthe ACK information but also send the NACK information, the terminalfeeds back the ACK information when the terminal has received thenon-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH, or feeds back the NACKinformation when the terminal has not received the non-scheduling DCI onthe first PDCCH.

A start time of the foregoing step 22, that is, in the non-schedulingDCI, an effective time of a first indication field indicating amonitoring behavior of the terminal, is one of the following:

a slot next to a slot in which the non-scheduling DCI is located, thatis, a next slot after the terminal receives the non-scheduling DCI;

a slot subsequent to a time gap after a slot in which the non-schedulingDCI is located, where the gap is predefined or is configured by thenetwork device; to be specific, a gap exists between reception of thenon-scheduling DCI and the effective time of the indication field, andin the gap, the terminal performs PDCCH monitoring based on a previousmonitoring behavior rule, that is, the terminal does not monitor thePDCCH in the gap based on the non-scheduling DCI but monitors the PDCCHbased on received target signaling, where the target signaling isdifferent from the non-scheduling DCI, for example, the target signalingis RRC signaling; and

an M^(th) slot after a slot in which the ACK information correspondingto the non-scheduling DCI is located, where M is a positive integer, anda value of M may be predefined or may be configured by the networkdevice.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the non-scheduling DCI includes afirst indication field used to indicate at least one of the followingmonitoring behaviors of the terminal (for example, the first PDCCH is adedicated PDCCH for the terminal) or a terminal group to which theterminal belongs (for example, the first PDCCH is a group-common PDCCH):

Monitoring behavior 1: Not monitoring the second PDCCH within a firsttransmission time. The first indication field includes indication bitsused to indicate that the terminal or the terminal group is not tomonitor the second PDCCH within the first transmission time. The firsttransmission time is N time domain transmission units, N second PDCCHmonitoring (monitoring) periods, or N monitoring time domaintransmission units in a second PDCCH monitoring period, where the timedomain transmission unit includes a slot, a mini-slot, a millisecond, ora time domain symbol, and N is a positive integer. Using the slot as anexample, the non-scheduling DCI includes a first indication field usedto indicate that the second PDCCH is not to be monitored in subsequent Nslots, N PDCCH monitoring periods, or N monitoring slots in a PDCCHmonitoring period. In addition, the first indication field may furtherindicate that the network device is not to send the second PDCCH in thesubsequent N slots, the N PDCCH monitoring periods, or the N monitoringslots in the PDCCH monitoring period. This indirectly indicates that theterminal or the terminal group does not need to monitor the second PDCCHin the period.

Monitoring behavior 2: Monitoring the second PDCCH within a secondtransmission time or not. The first indication field includes indicationbits used to indicate whether to monitor the second PDCCH within thesecond transmission time. For example, the indication bits in the firstindication field form a bitmap (bitmap). A position of each bit in thebitmap represents a position of a different time domain transmissionunit, a different monitoring (monitoring) period, or a differentmonitoring time domain transmission unit in a monitoring period. Forexample, in a 5-bit bitmap, a first bit represents a first slot withinthe second transmission time, a second bit represents a second slot inthe second transmission time, and so on. Assuming that the firstindication field includes a bitmap formed by N bits, the secondtransmission time is N time domain transmission units, N second PDCCHmonitoring (monitoring) periods, or N monitoring time domaintransmission units in a second PDCCH monitoring period, where the timedomain transmission unit includes a slot, a mini-slot, a millisecond, ora time domain symbol, and N is a positive integer. For a bit in thebitmap, a value “1” is used to indicate that the second PDCCH needs tobe monitored on a time domain transmission unit corresponding to thebit, and a value “0” is used to indicate that the second PDCCH does notneed to be monitored on the time domain transmission unit correspondingto the bit; or vice versa. It should be noted that a value of Ncorresponding to the first transmission time may be the same as ordifferent from a value of N corresponding to the second transmissiontime. This is not specifically limited in this embodiment.

Monitoring behavior 3: Monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH.The monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH includes at leastone of a monitoring period, a monitoring offset, and monitoringduration. For example, the first indication field includes two bits,where 00 indicates that the monitoring period is 5 slots, 01 indicatesthat the monitoring period is 10 slots, 10 indicates that the monitoringperiod is 20 slots, and 11 represents other purposes.

Further, the first indication field is used to indicate that themonitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH is one parameter in amonitoring parameter candidate set, and the monitoring parametercandidate set is indicated by the network device by using radio resourcecontrol RRC signaling. To be specific, the network device indicates themonitoring parameter candidate set by using the radio resource controlRRC signaling, the monitoring parameter candidate set includes at leastone monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH, and the indicationfield is used to indicate one parameter in the monitoring parametercandidate set. For example, the network device configures a monitoringparameter 1 (for example, the monitoring period is 5 slots), amonitoring parameter 2 (for example, the monitoring period is 10 slots),and a monitoring parameter 3 (for example, the monitoring period is 15slots) by using the RRC signaling. Optionally, the first indicationfield in the scheduling DCI is used to indicate which monitoringparameter is selected, that is, one of the monitoring parameters 1, 2,and 3 is selected.

Monitoring behavior 4: Connected discontinuous reception (ConnectedDiscontinuous Reception, CDRX) parameter, where the CDRX parameterincludes at least one of a CDRX cycle, a CDRX offset, and a CDRXonduration period (or referred to as an onduration timer).

Further, in a manner similar to the foregoing monitoring parameterindication manner, the first indication field is used to indicate thatthe CDRX parameter is one parameter in a CDRX parameter candidate set,and the CDRX parameter candidate set is indicated by the network deviceby using radio resource control RRC signaling. To be specific, thenetwork device indicates the CDRX parameter candidate set by using theradio resource control RRC signaling, the CDRX parameter candidate setincludes at least one CDRX parameter, and the indication field is usedto indicate one parameter in the CDRX parameter candidate set. Forexample, the network device configures a CDRX parameter 1 (for example,the DRX cycle is 160 ms), a CDRX parameter 2 (for example, the DRX cycleis 320 ms), and a CDRX parameter 3 (for example, the DRX cycle is 1280ms) by using the RRC signaling. Optionally, the first indication fieldin the scheduling DCI is used to indicate which CDRX parameter isselected, that is, one of the CDRX parameters 1, 2, and 3 is selected.

Monitoring behavior 5: Monitoring the second PDCCH based on receivedtarget signaling, where the target signaling is different from thenon-scheduling DCI, and the target signaling is used to indicate amonitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH. Same as the foregoingtarget signaling, the target signaling may include but is not limited toa MAC layer CE, RRC signaling, and the like. Using the RRC signaling asan example, the terminal monitors the second PDCCH based on a searchspace (search space) monitoring parameter configured by using the RRCsignaling.

The non-scheduling DCI in this embodiment of this disclosure may use adedicated DCI format, that is, a non-scheduling DCI format speciallyused for indicating a monitoring behavior of the terminal or theterminal group is added, where a size of the dedicated DCI format may beconsistent or inconsistent with that of the DCI format (as shown in theforegoing Table 1) in the related art. Alternatively, the non-schedulingDCI may use one of preset scheduling DCI formats or presetnon-scheduling DCI formats. Herein, the preset scheduling DCI formatsmay be the DCI formats 0_0, 0_1, 1_0, and 1_1 listed in the foregoingTable 1, and the preset non-scheduling DCI formats may be other DCIformats in the foregoing Table 1. When the non-scheduling DCI uses oneof the preset scheduling DCI formats or the preset non-scheduling DCIformats, a length of the non-scheduling DCI is consistent with that ofthe DCI format in the related art, so that complexity of blind detectionby the terminal can be reduced.

When the non-scheduling DCI uses one of the preset scheduling DCIformats, the indication field includes at least one of the followingfields in the preset scheduling DCI format: a hybrid automatic repeatrequest process number (HARQ process number) field, a redundancy version(Redundancy version) field, a modulation and coding scheme (Modulationand coding scheme) field, and a resource block assignment (Resourceblock assignment) field.

The following uses some fields in the non-scheduling DCI format again asan example for exemplarily describing an indication of a monitoringbehavior. An indication of a separate monitoring behavior or acombination of other monitoring behaviors is similar thereto, and is notdescribed in this embodiment.

The CRC is scrambled by using the C-RNTI, and the hybrid automaticrepeat request process number field, the redundancy version field, themodulation and coding scheme field, and the resource block assignmentfield are rewritten, as shown in the following Tables 2 to 6, toindicate whether the terminal or the terminal group is to monitor thesecond PDCCH.

TABLE 2 DCI field Field meaning Hybrid automatic repeat request Set toall 1s process number Redundancy version Set to 11 Modulation and codingscheme Indicating whether to monitor the second PDCCH Resource blockassignment Indicating whether to monitor the second PDCCH

TABLE 3 DCI field Field meaning Hybrid automatic repeat request Set toall 1s process number Redundancy version Set to 11 Modulation and codingscheme Indicating whether to monitor the second PDCCH Resource blockassignment Set to all 1s

TABLE 4 DCI field Field meaning Hybrid automatic repeat request Set toall 1s process number Redundancy version Set to 11 Modulation and codingscheme Indicating whether to monitor the second PDCCH Resource blockassignment Set to all 0s

TABLE 5 DCI field Field meaning Hybrid automatic repeat request Set toall 1s process number Redundancy version Set to 11 Modulation and codingscheme Set to all 1s Resource block assignment Indicating whether tomonitor the second PDCCH

TABLE 6 DCI field Field meaning Hybrid automatic repeat request Set toall 1s process number Redundancy version Set to 11 Modulation and codingscheme Set to all 0s Resource block assignment Indicating whether tomonitor the second PDCCH

The foregoing rewriting manner is used only as an example fordescription. Other rewriting manners may also be applicable to thisembodiment of this disclosure, and are not exhaustively illustratedherein.

Further, when the first indication field in the non-scheduling DCIindicates that the monitoring behavior is 1 and/or 2, before step 21,the method further includes: sending report information to the networkdevice, where the report information is used to indicate that the secondPDCCH is not to be monitored within the first transmission time, or usedto indicate whether the second PDCCH is to be monitored within thesecond transmission time. To be specific, the terminal sends reportinformation to the network device according to a scheduling requirementof the terminal, and when there is no scheduling requirement, transmitsreport information indicating that the second PDCCH is not to bemonitored within the first transmission time, or reports, based on aservice scheduling requirement, report information indicating whetherthe second PDCCH is to be monitored within the second transmission time.The network device may generate the non-scheduling DCI by referring tothe report information, to indicate a subsequent monitoring behavior ofthe terminal.

In addition, it should be noted that the non-scheduling DCI in thisembodiment of this disclosure may further include a second indicationfield used to indicate a new data indication (New Data Indication, NDI)of an uplink hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process. Thisindication field is used to instruct the terminal or the terminal groupto release a soft buffer (soft buffer). Specifically, for uplinktransmission, each HARQ process may correspond to one NDI.

For the terminal in the channel monitoring indication method in thisembodiment of this disclosure, the non-scheduling DCI is used todynamically indicate whether to monitor the PDCCH, so that the terminalmonitors the PDCCH more flexibly. This can avoid unnecessary PDCCHmonitoring and is advantageous for power saving of the terminal.

The channel monitoring indication method in different scenarios isdescribed in the foregoing embodiment. With reference to an accompanyingdrawing, the following further describes a terminal corresponding to thechannel monitoring indication method.

As shown in FIG. 3, a terminal 300 in an embodiment of this disclosurecan implement details of the method in the foregoing embodiment, thatis, monitoring a first physical downlink control channel PDCCH, and ifnon-scheduling downlink control information DCI is received on the firstPDCCH, determining, based on the non-scheduling DCI, whether to monitora second PDCCH, and can achieve a same effect. The terminal 300specifically includes the following functional modules:

a first monitoring module 310, adapted to monitor a first physicaldownlink control channel PDCCH; and

a second monitoring module 320, adapted to: if non-scheduling downlinkcontrol information DCI is received on the first PDCCH, determine, basedon the non-scheduling DCI, whether to monitor a second PDCCH.

The terminal 300 further includes:

a third monitoring module, adapted to: if the non-scheduling DCI is notreceived on the first PDCCH, monitor the second PDCCH based on receivedtarget signaling, where the target signaling is different from thenon-scheduling DCI, and the target signaling is used to indicate amonitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH.

A cyclic redundancy check CRC of the non-scheduling DCI is scrambled byusing a target radio network temporary identifier RNTI, and the targetRNTI is a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI or a dedicatedRNTI.

The terminal 300 further includes:

a first feedback module, adapted to feed back acknowledgement ACKinformation if the non-scheduling DCI is received on the first PDCCH; ora second feedback module, adapted to feed back negative acknowledgementNACK information if the non-scheduling DCI is not received on the firstPDCCH.

A start time of the step of determining, based on the non-schedulingDCI, whether to monitor a second PDCCH is one of the following:

a slot next to a slot in which the non-scheduling DCI is located;

a slot subsequent to a time gap after a slot in which the non-schedulingDCI is located, where the gap is predefined or is configured by anetwork device; and

an M^(th) slot after a slot in which the ACK information is located,where M is a positive integer.

The non-scheduling DCI includes a first indication field used toindicate at least one of the following of the terminal or a terminalgroup to which the terminal belongs:

not monitoring the second PDCCH within a first transmission time;

monitoring the second PDCCH within a second transmission time or not;

a monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH;

a connected discontinuous reception CDRX parameter; and

monitoring the second PDCCH based on received target signaling, wherethe target signaling is different from the non-scheduling DCI, and thetarget signaling is used to indicate a monitoring parameter related tothe second PDCCH.

The non-scheduling DCI uses a dedicated DCI format; or thenon-scheduling DCI uses one of preset scheduling DCI formats or presetnon-scheduling DCI formats.

When the non-scheduling DCI uses one of the preset scheduling DCIformats, the indication field includes at least one of the followingfields in the preset scheduling DCI format: a hybrid automatic repeatrequest process number field, a redundancy version field, a modulationand coding scheme field, and a resource block assignment field.

The CDRX parameter includes at least one of a CDRX cycle, a CDRX offset,and a CDRX on-duration period.

The first indication field is used to indicate that the monitoringparameter related to the second PDCCH is one parameter in a monitoringparameter candidate set, and the monitoring parameter candidate set isindicated by the network device by using radio resource control RRCsignaling.

The first indication field is used to indicate that the CDRX parameteris one parameter in a CDRX parameter candidate set, and the CDRXparameter candidate set is indicated by the network device by usingradio resource control RRC signaling.

The first transmission time or the second transmission time is N timedomain transmission units, N PDCCH monitoring periods, or N monitoringtime domain transmission units in a PDCCH monitoring period, where thetime domain transmission unit includes a slot, a mini-slot, amillisecond, or a time domain symbol, and N is a positive integer.

The terminal 300 further includes:

a reporting module, adapted to send report information to the networkdevice, where the report information is used to indicate that the secondPDCCH is not to be monitored within the first transmission time, or usedto indicate whether the second PDCCH is to be monitored within thesecond transmission time.

The monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH includes at leastone of a monitoring period, a monitoring offset, and monitoringduration.

The second PDCCH corresponds to at least one DCI format; and/or thesecond PDCCH corresponds to at least one search space.

A monitoring parameter of the first PDCCH is configured by a networkdevice; and the monitoring parameter includes at least one of amonitoring period, a monitoring offset, and monitoring duration.

The non-scheduling DCI further includes a second indication field usedto indicate a new data indication NDI of an uplink hybrid automaticrepeat request HARQ process.

It should be noted that for the terminal in the embodiment of thisdisclosure, the non-scheduling DCI is used to dynamically indicatewhether to monitor the PDCCH, so that the terminal monitors the PDCCHmore flexibly. This can avoid unnecessary PDCCH monitoring and isadvantageous for power saving of the terminal.

To better achieve the foregoing objective, further, FIG. 4 is aschematic diagram of a hardware structure of a terminal for implementingeach embodiment of this disclosure. The terminal 40 includes but is notlimited to components such as a radio frequency unit 41, a networkmodule 42, an audio output unit 43, an input unit 44, a sensor 45, adisplay unit 46, a user input unit 47, an interface unit 48, a memory49, a processor 410, and a power supply 411. A person skilled in the artmay understand that the structure of the terminal shown in FIG. 4 doesnot constitute a limitation on the terminal. A quantity of componentsincluded in the terminal may be greater or less than that shown in thefigure, or some components are combined, or component arrangements aredifferent. In this embodiment of this disclosure, the terminal includesbut is not limited to a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a notebookcomputer, a palmtop computer, an in-vehicle terminal, a wearable device,a pedometer, or the like.

The radio frequency unit 41 is adapted to receive or send data undercontrol of the processor 410, and is specifically adapted to: monitor afirst physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and if non-schedulingdownlink control information DCI is received on the first PDCCH,determine, based on the non-scheduling DCI, whether to monitor a secondPDCCH.

For the terminal in the embodiment of this disclosure, thenon-scheduling DCI is used to dynamically indicate whether to monitorthe PDCCH, so that the terminal monitors the PDCCH more flexibly. Thiscan avoid unnecessary PDCCH monitoring and is advantageous for powersaving of the terminal.

It should be understood that in this embodiment of this disclosure, theradio frequency unit 41 may be adapted to receive and send signals in aninformation reception or transmission or call process. Specifically,after receiving downlink data from a base station, the radio frequencyunit 41 sends the downlink data to the processor 410 for processing, andin addition, sends uplink data to the base station. Generally, the radiofrequency unit 41 includes but is not limited to an antenna, at leastone amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, a low noise amplifier, aduplexer, and the like. In addition, the radio frequency unit 41 mayfurther communicate with a network and another device through a wirelesscommunications system.

The terminal provides wireless broadband Internet access for a user byusing the network module 42, for example, helps the user send andreceive e-mails, browse web pages, and access streaming media.

The audio output unit 43 may convert audio data received by the radiofrequency unit 41 or the network module 42 or stored in the memory 49into an audio signal and output the audio signal as a sound. Inaddition, the audio output unit 43 may further provide an audio output(for example, a call signal reception sound or a message receptionsound) related to a specific function performed by the terminal 40. Theaudio output unit 43 includes a speaker, a buzzer, a receiver, and thelike.

The input unit 44 is adapted to receive an audio or video signal. Theinput unit 44 may include a graphics processing unit (GraphicsProcessing Unit, GPU) 441 and a microphone 442, and the graphicsprocessing unit 441 processes image data of a still picture or a videoobtained by an image capture apparatus (for example, a camera) in animage capture mode or a video capture mode. A processed image frame maybe displayed on the display unit 46. An image frame processed by thegraphics processing unit 441 may be stored in the memory 49 (or anotherstorage medium) or sent by the radio frequency unit 41 or the networkmodule 42. The microphone 442 can receive a sound and can process thesound into audio data. The processed audio data may be converted in atelephone call mode into a format that can be sent by the radiofrequency unit 41 to a mobile communications base station, foroutputting.

The terminal 40 may further include at least one sensor 45 such as anoptical sensor, a motion sensor, and other sensors. Specifically, theoptical sensor includes an ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor,where the ambient light sensor can adjust luminance of a display panel461 based on brightness of ambient light, and the proximity sensor canturn off the display panel 461 and/or backlight when the terminal 40 ismoved to an ear. As a type of motion sensor, an accelerometer sensor candetect magnitudes of accelerations in all directions (usually threeaxes), can detect a magnitude and a direction of gravity when the mobilephone is in a stationary state, and can be applied to terminal posturerecognition (such as screen switching between portrait and landscape,related games, and magnetometer posture calibration), functions relatedto vibration recognition (such as pedometer and tapping), and the like.The sensor 45 may further include a fingerprint sensor, a pressuresensor, an iris sensor, a molecular sensor, a gyroscope, a barometer, ahygrometer, a thermometer, an infrared sensor, and the like. Details arenot described herein.

The display unit 46 is adapted to display information input by the useror information provided for the user. The display unit 46 may includethe display panel 461. The display panel 461 may be configured in a formof a liquid crystal display (Liquid Crystal Display, LCD), an organiclight-emitting diode (Organic Light-Emitting Diode, OLED), or the like.

The user input unit 47 may be adapted to receive input digit orcharacter information, and generate a key signal input related to a usersetting and function control of the terminal. Specifically, the userinput unit 47 may include a touch panel 471 and other input devices 472.The touch panel 471, also referred to as a touchscreen, may capture atouch operation performed by a user on or near the touch panel (forexample, an operation performed by the user on the touch panel 471 ornear the touch panel 471 by using any appropriate object or accessorysuch as a finger or a stylus). The touch panel 471 may include twoparts: a touch detection apparatus and a touch controller. The touchdetection apparatus detects a touch direction of the user, detects asignal carried by a touch operation, and transmits the signal to thetouch controller. The touch controller receives touch information fromthe touch detection apparatus, converts the touch information to pointcoordinates, and sends the point coordinates to the processor 410, andreceives and executes a command sent by the processor 410. In addition,the touch panel 471 may be implemented in a plurality of forms, forexample, as a resistive, capacitive, infrared, or surface acoustic wavetouch panel. The user input unit 47 may further include the other inputdevices 472 in addition to the touch panel 471. Specifically, the otherinput devices 472 may include but are not limited to a physicalkeyboard, a function key (such as a volume control key or a power on/offkey), a trackball, a mouse, and a joystick. Details are not describedherein.

Further, the touch panel 471 may cover the display panel 461. Afterdetecting a touch operation on or near the touch panel 471, the touchpanel 471 transmits information about the touch operation to theprocessor 410 for the processor 410 to determine a touch event type, andthen the processor 410 provides a corresponding visual output on thedisplay panel 461 based on the touch event type. Although the touchpanel 471 and the display panel 461 are used as two independentcomponents to implement input and output functions of the terminal inFIG. 4, the touch panel 471 and the display panel 461 may be integratedto implement the input and output functions of the terminal in someembodiments. This is not specifically limited herein.

The interface unit 48 is an interface connecting an external apparatusto the terminal 40. For example, the external apparatus may include awired or wireless headphone port, an external power (or battery charger)port, a wired or wireless data port, a memory card port, a port forconnecting an apparatus having an identification module, an audioinput/output (I/O) port, a video I/O port, an earphone port, and thelike. The interface unit 48 may be adapted to receive an input (forexample, data information or power) from an external apparatus, andtransmit the received input to one or more components in the terminal40, or may be adapted to transmit data between the terminal 40 and anexternal apparatus.

The memory 49 may be adapted to store a software program and variousdata. The memory 49 may mainly include a program storage area and a datastorage area. The program storage area may store an operating system, anapplication program required for at least one function (such as a soundplay function and an image play function), and the like. The datastorage area may store data created based on use of the mobile phone(such as audio data and a phone book), and the like. In addition, thememory 49 may include a high-speed random access memory, and may furtherinclude a non-volatile memory, for example, at least one magnetic diskstorage device or a flash memory device, or another volatile solid-statestorage device.

The processor 410 is a control center of the terminal. The processor 410uses various interfaces and lines to connect all parts of the entireterminal, and performs various functions and data processing of theterminal by running or executing the software program and/or modulestored in the memory 49 and invoking data stored in the memory 49,thereby performing overall monitoring on the terminal. The processor 410may include one or more processing units. Optionally, an applicationprocessor and a modem processor may be integrated into the processor410. The application processor mainly processes an operating system, auser interface, an application program, and the like. The modemprocessor mainly processes wireless communication. It can be understoodthat the modem processor may alternatively not be integrated in theprocessor 410.

The terminal 40 may further include the power supply 411 (for example, abattery) supplying power to all components. Optionally, the power supply411 may be logically connected to the processor 410 through a powermanagement system. In this way, functions such as charge management,discharge management, and power consumption management are implementedby using the power management system.

In addition, the terminal 40 includes some functional modules that arenot shown, details of which are not described herein.

Optionally, an embodiment of this disclosure further provides aterminal, including: a processor 410, a memory 49, and a computerprogram stored in the memory 49 and capable of running on the processor410. When the computer program is executed by the processor 410, theprocedures in the foregoing embodiments of the channel monitoringindication method are implemented, with the same technical effectachieved. To avoid repetition, details are not described again herein.The terminal may be a wireless terminal or a wired terminal. Thewireless terminal may be a device that provides the user with voiceand/or other service data connectivity, a handheld device with awireless connection function, or another processing device connected toa wireless modem. The wireless terminal may communicate with one or morecore networks through a radio access network (Radio Access Network,RAN). The wireless terminal may be a mobile terminal, such as a mobilephone (also referred to as a “cellular” phone) and a computer with amobile terminal, for example, may be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld,computer built-in, or in-vehicle mobile apparatus, which exchanges voiceand/or data with the radio access network. For example, it may be adevice such as a personal communication service (Personal CommunicationService, PCS) phone, a cordless telephone set, a Session InitiationProtocol (Session Initiation Protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop(Wireless Local Loop, WLL) station, or a personal digital assistant(Personal Digital Assistant, PDA). The wireless terminal may also bereferred to as a system, a subscriber unit (Subscriber Unit), asubscriber station (Subscriber Station), a mobile station (MobileStation), a mobile (Mobile), a remote station (Remote Station), a remoteterminal (Remote Terminal), an access terminal (Access Terminal), a userterminal (User Terminal), a user agent (User Agent), or a user device(User Device or User Equipment). This is not limited herein.

An embodiment of this disclosure further provides a computer-readablestorage medium, where a computer program is stored in thecomputer-readable storage medium. When the computer program is executedby a processor, the procedures in the foregoing embodiments of thechannel monitoring indication method can be implemented, with the sametechnical effect achieved. To avoid repetition, details are notdescribed again herein. The computer-readable storage medium is, forexample, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), a random accessmemory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

The channel monitoring indication method in this disclosure is describedfrom a terminal side in the foregoing embodiment. The following furtherdescribes a channel monitoring indication method on a network deviceside with reference to an accompanying drawing.

As shown in FIG. 5, a channel monitoring indication method in anembodiment of this disclosure is applied to a network device side, andthe method includes the following step.

Step 51: Send a first physical downlink control channel PDCCH, where thefirst PDCCH carries non-scheduling downlink control information DCI, andthe non-scheduling DCI is used to indicate whether a terminal is tomonitor a second PDCCH.

A monitoring parameter of the first PDCCH is configured by a networkdevice; and the monitoring parameter includes at least one of amonitoring period, a monitoring offset, and monitoring duration. Becausethe non-scheduling DCI dynamically indicates a monitoring behavior ofthe terminal, unnecessary PDCCH monitoring performed by the terminal canbe avoided, and power consumption of the terminal is reduced. The secondPDCCH in this embodiment of this disclosure corresponds to at least oneDCI format, and/or the second PDCCH corresponds to at least one searchspace. For example, the second PDCCH corresponds to at least one ofnon-scheduling DCI formats, or corresponds to at least one ofnon-scheduling DCI formats, or corresponds to at least one of schedulingDCI formats and non-scheduling DCI formats.

After step 51, the method further includes: receiving acknowledgementACK information, where the ACK information is used to indicate that theterminal has received the non-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH; orreceiving negative acknowledgement NACK information, where the NACKinformation is used to indicate that the terminal has not received thenon-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH. To be specific, if it is definedthat the terminal sends only the ACK information, the terminal feedsback the acknowledgement ACK information when the terminal has receivedthe non-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH; or does not send any feedbackinformation when the terminal has not received the non-scheduling DCI onthe first PDCCH. If it is defined that the terminal sends only the NACKinformation, the terminal does not send any feedback information whenthe terminal has received the non-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH, orfeeds back the NACK information when the terminal has not received thenon-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH. If it is defined that theterminal may not only send the ACK information but also send the NACKinformation, the terminal feeds back the ACK information when theterminal has received the non-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH, orfeeds back the NACK information when the terminal has not received thenon-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH.

In addition, a cyclic redundancy check CRC of the non-scheduling DCI isscrambled by using a target radio network temporary identifier RNTI, andthe target RNTI is a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI or adedicated RNTI.

In the non-scheduling DCI in this embodiment of this disclosure, aneffective time of an indication about whether the terminal is to monitorthe second PDCCH is one of the following:

a slot next to a slot in which the non-scheduling DCI is located, thatis, a next slot after the terminal receives the non-scheduling DCI;

a slot subsequent to a time gap after a slot in which the non-schedulingDCI is located, where the gap is predefined or is configured by thenetwork device; to be specific, a gap exists between reception of thenon-scheduling DCI and the effective time of the indication field, andin the gap, the terminal performs PDCCH monitoring based on a previousmonitoring behavior rule; and

an M^(th) slot after a slot in which the ACK information correspondingto the non-scheduling DCI is located, where M is a positive integer, anda value of M may be predefined or may be configured by the networkdevice.

The non-scheduling DCI includes a first indication field used toindicate at least one of the following monitoring behaviors of theterminal (for example, the first PDCCH is a dedicated PDCCH for theterminal) or a terminal group to which the terminal belongs (forexample, the first PDCCH is a group-common Group-common PDCCH):

Not monitoring the second PDCCH within a first transmission time, wherethe first transmission time is N time domain transmission units, Nsecond PDCCH monitoring (monitoring) periods, or N monitoring timedomain transmission units in a second PDCCH monitoring period, where thetime domain transmission unit includes a slot, a mini-slot, amillisecond, or a time domain symbol, and N is a positive integer. Thescenario corresponds to the foregoing monitoring behavior 1, andtherefore is not described again herein.

Monitoring the second PDCCH within a second transmission time or not,where the second transmission time is N time domain transmission units,N second PDCCH monitoring (monitoring) periods, or N monitoring timedomain transmission units in a second PDCCH monitoring period, where thetime domain transmission unit includes a slot, a mini-slot, amillisecond, or a time domain symbol, and N is a positive integer. Thescenario corresponds to the foregoing monitoring behavior 2, andtherefore is not described again herein.

Monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH, where the monitoringparameter includes at least one of a monitoring period, a monitoringoffset, and monitoring duration. For example, the indication fieldincludes two bits, where 00 indicates that the monitoring period is 5slots, 01 indicates that the monitoring period is 10 slots, 10 indicatesthat the monitoring period is 20 slots, and 11 represents otherpurposes. The network device may further indicate a monitoring parametercandidate set by using radio resource control RRC signaling, themonitoring parameter candidate set includes at least one monitoringparameter related to the second PDCCH, and the first indication field isused to indicate one parameter in the monitoring parameter candidateset. The scenario corresponds to the foregoing monitoring behavior 3,and therefore is not described again herein.

Connected discontinuous reception CDRX parameter, where the CDRXparameter includes at least one of a CDRX cycle, a CDRX offset, and aCDRX on-duration period. The network device may further indicate a CDRXparameter candidate set by using radio resource control RRC signaling,the CDRX parameter candidate set includes at least one CDRX parameter,and the first indication field is used to indicate one parameter in theCDRX parameter candidate set. The scenario corresponds to the foregoingmonitoring behavior 4, and therefore is not described again herein.

Monitoring the second PDCCH based on received target signaling, wherethe target signaling is different from the non-scheduling DCI, and thetarget signaling is used to indicate a monitoring parameter related tothe second PDCCH. The scenario corresponds to the foregoing monitoringbehavior 5, and therefore is not described again herein.

The non-scheduling DCI may use a dedicated DCI format, that is, anon-scheduling DCI format specially used for indicating a monitoringbehavior of the terminal or the terminal group is added, where a length(Size) of the dedicated DCI format may be consistent or inconsistentwith that of the DCI format (as shown in the foregoing Table 1) in therelated art. Alternatively, the non-scheduling DCI may use one of presetscheduling DCI formats or preset non-scheduling DCI formats. Herein, thepreset scheduling DCI formats may be the DCI formats 0_0, 0_1, 1_0, and1_1 listed in the foregoing Table 1, and the preset non-scheduling DCIformats may be other DCI formats in the foregoing Table 1. When thenon-scheduling DCI uses one of the preset scheduling DCI formats or thepreset non-scheduling DCI formats, a length of the non-scheduling DCI isconsistent with that of the DCI format in the related art, so thatcomplexity of blind detection by the terminal can be reduced.

When the non-scheduling DCI uses one of the preset scheduling DCIformats, the indication field includes at least one of the followingfields in the preset scheduling DCI format: a hybrid automatic repeatrequest process number field, a redundancy version field, a modulationand coding scheme field, and a resource block assignment field. For anembodiment of rewriting some fields in the preset scheduling DCI format,refer to the embodiment of the terminal. Details are not described againherein.

Further, when the first indication field in the non-scheduling DCIindicates that the monitoring behavior is 1 and/or 2, before step 51,the method further includes: receiving report information, where thereport information is used to indicate that the second PDCCH is not tobe monitored within the first transmission time, or used to indicatewhether the second PDCCH is to be monitored within the secondtransmission time. The terminal sends report information to the networkdevice according to a scheduling requirement of the terminal, and whenthere is no scheduling requirement, transmits report informationindicating that the second PDCCH is not to be monitored within the firsttransmission time, or reports, based on a service schedulingrequirement, report information indicating whether the second PDCCH isto be monitored within the second transmission time. The network devicemay generate the non-scheduling DCI by referring to the reportinformation, to indicate a subsequent monitoring behavior of theterminal. Further, for terminals whose report information indicatesconsistent content, the network device may generate a group-common PDCCHbased on the report information.

In addition, the non-scheduling DCI in this embodiment of thisdisclosure may further include a second indication field used toindicate a new data indication (New Data Indication, NDI) of an uplinkhybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process. This indication field isused to instruct the terminal or the terminal group to release a softbuffer (soft buffer). Specifically, for uplink transmission, each HARQprocess may correspond to one NDI.

In the channel monitoring indication method in this embodiment of thisdisclosure, the network device sends the PDCCH carrying thenon-scheduling DCI to the terminal, where the non-scheduling DCI is usedto indicate whether the terminal is to monitor the second PDCCH; and theterminal determines, based on the dynamic indication of thenon-scheduling DCI, whether to monitor the PDCCH, so that the terminalmonitors the PDCCH more flexibly. This can avoid unnecessary PDCCHmonitoring and is advantageous for power saving of the terminal.

The channel monitoring indication method in different scenarios isseparately described in detail in the foregoing embodiment. A networkdevice corresponding to the channel monitoring indication method isfurther described in the following embodiment with reference to anaccompanying drawing.

As shown in FIG. 6, a network device 600 in an embodiment of thisdisclosure can implement details of the method in the foregoingembodiment, that is, sending a first physical downlink control channelPDCCH, where the first PDCCH carries non-scheduling downlink controlinformation DCI, and the non-scheduling DCI is used to indicate whethera terminal is to monitor a second PDCCH, and can achieve a same effect.The network device 600 specifically includes the following functionalmodule:

a first sending module 610, adapted to send a first physical downlinkcontrol channel PDCCH, where the first PDCCH carries non-schedulingdownlink control information DCI, and the non-scheduling DCI is used toindicate whether a terminal is to monitor a second PDCCH.

A cyclic redundancy check CRC of the non-scheduling DCI is scrambled byusing a target radio network temporary identifier RNTI, and the targetRNTI is a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI or a dedicatedRNTI.

The network device 600 further includes:

a first receiving module, adapted to receive acknowledgement ACKinformation, where the ACK information is used to indicate that theterminal has received the non-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH; or

a second receiving module, adapted to receive negative acknowledgementNACK information, where the NACK information is used to indicate thatthe terminal has not received the non-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH.

In the non-scheduling DCI, a start effective time of an indication aboutwhether the terminal is to monitor the second PDCCH is one of thefollowing:

a slot next to a slot in which the non-scheduling DCI is located;

a slot subsequent to a time gap after a slot in which the non-schedulingDCI is located, where the gap is predefined or is configured by thenetwork device; and

an M^(th) slot after a slot in which the ACK information is located,where M is a positive integer.

The non-scheduling DCI includes a first indication field used toindicate at least one of the following of the terminal or a terminalgroup to which the terminal belongs:

not monitoring the second PDCCH within a first transmission time;

monitoring the second PDCCH within a second transmission time or not;

a monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH;

a connected discontinuous reception CDRX parameter; and

monitoring the second PDCCH based on received target signaling, wherethe target signaling is different from the non-scheduling DCI, and thetarget signaling is used to indicate a monitoring parameter related tothe second PDCCH.

The non-scheduling DCI uses a dedicated DCI format; or thenon-scheduling DCI uses one of preset scheduling DCI formats or presetnon-scheduling DCI formats.

When the non-scheduling DCI uses one of the preset scheduling DCIformats, the indication field includes at least one of the followingfields in the preset scheduling DCI format: a hybrid automatic repeatrequest process number field, a redundancy version field, a modulationand coding scheme field, and a resource block assignment field.

The CDRX parameter includes at least one of a CDRX cycle, a CDRX offset,and a CDRX on-duration period.

The network device indicates a monitoring parameter candidate set byusing radio resource control RRC signaling, the monitoring parametercandidate set includes at least one monitoring parameter related to thesecond PDCCH, and the first indication field is used to indicate oneparameter in the monitoring parameter candidate set.

The network device indicates a CDRX parameter candidate set by usingradio resource control RRC signaling, the CDRX parameter candidate setincludes at least one CDRX parameter, and the first indication field isused to indicate one parameter in the CDRX parameter candidate set.

The first transmission time or the second transmission time is N timedomain transmission units, N PDCCH monitoring periods, or N monitoringtime domain transmission units in a PDCCH monitoring period, where thetime domain transmission unit includes a slot, a mini-slot, amillisecond, or a time domain symbol, and N is a positive integer.

The network device 600 further includes:

a third receiving module, adapted to receive report information, wherethe report information is used to indicate that the second PDCCH is notto be monitored within the first transmission time, or used to indicatewhether the second PDCCH is to be monitored within the secondtransmission time.

The monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH includes at leastone of a monitoring period, a monitoring offset, and monitoringduration.

The second PDCCH corresponds to at least one DCI format; and/or thesecond PDCCH corresponds to at least one search space.

The network device 600 further includes:

a configuration module, adapted to configure a monitoring parameter ofthe first PDCCH, where the monitoring parameter includes at least one ofa monitoring period, a monitoring offset, and monitoring duration.

The non-scheduling DCI further includes a second indication field usedto indicate a new data indication NDI of an uplink hybrid automaticrepeat request HARQ process.

It should be noted that, it should be understood that division ofmodules of the network device and the terminal is merely logicalfunction division. The modules may be all or partially integrated in aphysical entity or may be separated physically in an actualimplementation. In addition, the modules may be all implemented in aform of software invoked by a processing component, or may be allimplemented in a form of hardware; or a part of modules may beimplemented in a form of software invoked by a processing component, andanother part of modules may be implemented in a form of hardware. Forexample, the determining module may be a processing component that isseparately disposed, or may be integrated in a chip of the apparatus forimplementation. In addition, the determining module may be stored in amemory of the apparatus in a form of program code, and is invoked by aprocessing component of the apparatus to perform a function of thedetermining module. Implementation of other modules is similar to this.In addition, the modules may be all or partially integrated, or may beimplemented independently. Herein, the processing component may be anintegrated circuit, and has a signal processing capability. In animplementation process, steps in the foregoing method or the foregoingmodules can be implemented by using a hardware integrated logicalcircuit in the processing component, or by using instructions in a formof software.

For example, the modules may be configured as one or more integratedcircuits for implementing the foregoing method, for example, one or moreapplication-specific integrated circuits (Application-SpecificIntegrated Circuit, ASIC), or one or more microprocessors, or one ormore digital signal processors (digital signal processor, DSP), or oneor more field programmable gate arrays (Field Programmable Gate Array,FPGA). For another example, when one of the foregoing modules isimplemented in a form of program code invoked by the processingcomponent, the processing component may be a general purpose processor,for example, a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU) oranother processor that may invoke program code. For another example, themodules may be integrated and implemented in a form of asystem-on-a-chip (system-on-a-chip, SOC).

It should be noted that the network device in this embodiment of thisdisclosure sends the PDCCH carrying the non-scheduling DCI to theterminal, where the non-scheduling DCI is used to indicate whether theterminal is to monitor the second PDCCH; and the terminal determines,based on the dynamic indication of the non-scheduling DCI, whether tomonitor the PDCCH, so that the terminal monitors the PDCCH moreflexibly. This can avoid unnecessary PDCCH monitoring and isadvantageous for power saving of the terminal.

To better achieve the foregoing objective, an embodiment of thisdisclosure further provides a network device, including a processor, amemory, and a computer program stored in the memory and capable ofrunning on the processor, where when the processor executes the computerprogram, the steps of the foregoing channel monitoring indication methodare implemented. An embodiment of this disclosure further provides acomputer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored inthe computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program isexecuted by a processor, the steps of the foregoing channel monitoringindication method are implemented.

Specifically, an embodiment of this disclosure further provides anetwork device. As shown in FIG. 7, the network device 700 includes anantenna 71, a radio frequency apparatus 72, and a baseband apparatus 73.The antenna 71 is connected to the radio frequency apparatus 72. In anuplink direction, the radio frequency apparatus 72 receives informationby using the antenna 71, and sends the received information to thebaseband apparatus 73 for processing. In a downlink direction, thebaseband apparatus 73 processes to-be-sent information, and sends theinformation to the radio frequency apparatus 72; and the radio frequencyapparatus 72 processes the received information and then sends theinformation out by using the antenna 71.

The frequency band processing apparatus may be located in the basebandapparatus 73. The method performed by the network device in theforegoing embodiment may be implemented in the baseband apparatus 73,and the baseband apparatus 73 includes a processor 74 and a memory 75.

The baseband apparatus 73 may include, for example, at least onebaseband processing unit, and a plurality of chips are disposed on thebaseband processing unit. As shown in FIG. 7, one of the chips is, forexample, the processor 74, connected to the memory 75, to invoke aprogram in the memory 75 to perform operations of the network deviceshown in the foregoing method embodiment.

The baseband apparatus 73 may further include a network interface 76,adapted to exchange information with the radio frequency apparatus 72,where the interface is, for example, a common public radio interface(common public radio interface, CPRI).

Herein, the processor may be one processor, or may be a collective termfor a plurality of processing components. For example, the processor maybe a CPU, or may be an ASIC, or is configured as one or more integratedcircuits for implementing the method performed by the network device,for example, one or more microprocessors, one or more DSPs, or one ormore field programmable gate arrays FPGAs. A storage component may be amemory, or may be a collective term for a plurality of storagecomponents.

The memory 75 may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or mayinclude a volatile memory and a non-volatile memory. The non-volatilememory may be a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), a programmableread-only memory (Programmable ROM, PROM), an erasable programmableread-only memory (Erasable PROM, EPROM), and an electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), or a flashmemory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (Random AccessMemory, RAM), and the RAM is used as an external cache. For illustrativerather than restrictive description, a plurality of forms of RAMs areavailable, for example, a static random access memory (Static RAM,SRAM), a dynamic random access memory (Dynamic RAM, DRAM), a synchronousdynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), a double datarate synchronous dynamic random access memory (Double Data Rate SDRAM,DDR SDRAM), an enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory(Enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), a synchlink dynamic random access memory(Synchlink DRAM, SLDRAM), and a direct memory bus random access memory(Direct Rambus RAM, DRRAM). The memory 75 described in this applicationis intended to include but is not limited to these and any othersuitable types of memories.

Specifically, the network device in this embodiment of this disclosurefurther includes a computer program stored in the memory 75 and capableof running on the processor 74. The processor 74 invokes the computerprogram in the memory 75 to perform the method performed by each moduleshown in FIG. 6.

Specifically, when being invoked by the processor 74, the computerprogram may be adapted to: send a first physical downlink controlchannel PDCCH, where the first PDCCH carries non-scheduling downlinkcontrol information DCI, and the non-scheduling DCI is used to indicatewhether a terminal is to monitor a second PDCCH.

The network device in this embodiment of this disclosure sends the PDCCHcarrying the non-scheduling DCI to the terminal, where thenon-scheduling DCI is used to indicate whether the terminal is tomonitor the second PDCCH; and the terminal determines, based on thedynamic indication of the non-scheduling DCI, whether to monitor thePDCCH, so that the terminal monitors the PDCCH more flexibly. This canavoid unnecessary PDCCH monitoring and is advantageous for power savingof the terminal.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may be aware that the units andalgorithm steps in the examples described with reference to theembodiments disclosed in this specification can be implemented byelectronic hardware or a combination of computer software and electronichardware. Whether the functions are performed by hardware or softwaredepends on particular applications and design constraints of thetechnical solutions. A person skilled in the art may use differentmethods to implement the described functions for each particularapplication, but it should not be considered that the implementationgoes beyond the scope of this disclosure.

It may be clearly understood by a person skilled in the art that, forthe purpose of convenient and brief description, for a detailed workingprocess of the foregoing system, apparatus, and unit, reference may bemade to a corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiments, anddetails are not described again herein.

In the embodiments provided in this application, it should be understoodthat the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in othermanners. For example, the described apparatus embodiment is merely anexample. For example, the unit division is merely logical functiondivision and may be other division in actual implementation. Forexample, a plurality of units or components may be combined orintegrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or maynot be performed. In addition, the displayed or discussed mutualcouplings or direct couplings or communication connections may beimplemented by using some interfaces. The indirect couplings orcommunication connections between the apparatuses or units may beimplemented in electronic, mechanical, or other forms.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physicallyseparate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units,may be located in one position, or may be distributed on a plurality ofnetwork elements. Some or all of the units may be selected based onactual requirements to achieve the objectives of the solutions of theembodiments.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of this disclosure maybe integrated into one processing unit, or each of the units may existalone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

When the functions are implemented in a form of a software functionalunit and sold or used as an independent product, the functions may bestored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such anunderstanding, the technical solutions of this disclosure essentially,or the part contributing to the prior art, or some of the technicalsolutions may be embodied in a form of a software product. The computersoftware product is stored in a storage medium, and includes severalinstructions for instructing a computer device (which may be a personalcomputer, a server, a network device, or the like) to perform all orsome of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of thisdisclosure. The foregoing storage medium includes: any medium that canstore program code, such as a USB flash drive, a removable hard disk, aROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

In addition, it should be noted that in the apparatus and method of thisdisclosure, apparently, the components or steps may be decomposed and/orrecombined. The decomposition and/or recombination should be consideredas an equivalent solution of this disclosure. In addition, steps forperforming the foregoing series of processing may be naturally performedin a sequence of description and in a time sequence, but do not need tobe performed necessarily in the time sequence, and some steps may beperformed in parallel or independently. A person of ordinary skill inthe art can understand that all or any steps or components of the methodand apparatus in this disclosure may be implemented by hardware,firmware, software, or a combination thereof in any computing apparatus(including a processor, a storage medium, and the like) or a network ofcomputing apparatuses. This can be implemented as long as a person ofordinary skill in the art applies basic programming skill after readingthe specification of this disclosure.

Therefore, an objective of this disclosure may also be achieved byrunning a program or a group of programs on any computing apparatus. Thecomputing apparatus may be a well-known general apparatus. Therefore,the objective of this disclosure may also be achieved by merelyproviding a program product including program code for implementing themethod or apparatus. To be specific, the program product alsoconstitutes this disclosure, and a storage medium storing the programproduct also constitutes this disclosure. Apparently, the storage mediummay be any well-known storage medium or any storage medium that will bedeveloped in the future. It should also be noted that in the apparatusand method of this disclosure, apparently, the components or steps maybe decomposed and/or recombined. The decomposition and/or recombinationshould be considered as an equivalent solution of this disclosure. Inaddition, steps for performing the foregoing series of processing may benaturally performed in a sequence of description and in a time sequence,but do not need to be performed necessarily in the time sequence. Somesteps may be performed in parallel or independently.

The foregoing descriptions are merely optional implementations of thisdisclosure. It should be noted that a person of ordinary skill in theart may make several improvements or polishing without departing fromthe principle of this disclosure and the improvements and polishingshall fall within the protection scope of this disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A channel monitoring indication method, appliedto a terminal and comprising: monitoring a first physical downlinkcontrol channel PDCCH; and if non-scheduling downlink controlinformation DCI is received on the first PDCCH, determining, based onthe non-scheduling DCI, whether to monitor a second PDCCH.
 2. Thechannel monitoring indication method according to claim 1, wherein acyclic redundancy check CRC of the non-scheduling DCI is scrambled byusing a target radio network temporary identifier RNTI, and the targetRNTI is a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI or a dedicatedRNTI.
 3. The channel monitoring indication method according to claim 1,wherein after the step of monitoring a first physical downlink controlchannel PDCCH, the method further comprises: if the non-scheduling DCIis received on the first PDCCH, feeding back acknowledgement ACKinformation; or if the non-scheduling DCI is not received on the firstPDCCH, feeding back negative acknowledgement NACK information.
 4. Thechannel monitoring indication method according to claim 3, wherein astart time of the step of determining, based on the non-scheduling DCI,whether to monitor a second PDCCH is one of the following: a slot nextto a slot in which the non-scheduling DCI is located; a slot subsequentto a time gap after a slot in which the non-scheduling DCI is located,wherein the gap is predefined or is configured by the network device;and an M^(th) slot after a slot in which the ACK information is located,wherein M is a positive integer.
 5. The channel monitoring indicationmethod according to claim 1, wherein the non-scheduling DCI comprises afirst indication field used to indicate at least one of the following ofthe terminal or a terminal group to which the terminal belongs: notmonitoring the second PDCCH within a first transmission time; monitoringthe second PDCCH within a second transmission time or not; a monitoringparameter related to the second PDCCH; a connected discontinuousreception CDRX parameter; and monitoring the second PDCCH based onreceived target signaling, wherein the target signaling is differentfrom the non-scheduling DCI, and the target signaling is used toindicate a monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH.
 6. Thechannel monitoring indication method according to claim 5, wherein thenon-scheduling DCI uses a dedicated DCI format; or the non-schedulingDCI uses one of preset scheduling DCI formats or preset non-schedulingDCI formats.
 7. The channel monitoring indication method according toclaim 6, wherein when the non-scheduling DCI uses one of the presetscheduling DCI formats, the indication field comprises at least one ofthe following fields in the preset scheduling DCI format: a hybridautomatic repeat request process number field, a redundancy versionfield, a modulation and coding scheme field, and a resource blockassignment field.
 8. The channel monitoring indication method accordingto claim 5, wherein the first indication field is used to indicate thatthe monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH is one parameter ina monitoring parameter candidate set, and the monitoring parametercandidate set is indicated by the network device by using radio resourcecontrol RRC signaling.
 9. The channel monitoring indication methodaccording to claim 5, wherein the monitoring parameter related to thesecond PDCCH comprises at least one of a monitoring period, a monitoringoffset, and monitoring duration.
 10. A terminal, comprising a processor,a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and capable ofrunning on the processor, wherein the computer program is executed bythe processor to implement: monitoring a first physical downlink controlchannel PDCCH; and if non-scheduling downlink control information DCI isreceived on the first PDCCH, determining, based on the non-schedulingDCI, whether to monitor a second PDCCH.
 11. The terminal according toclaim 10, wherein a cyclic redundancy check CRC of the non-schedulingDCI is scrambled by using a target radio network temporary identifierRNTI, and the target RNTI is a cell radio network temporary identifierC-RNTI or a dedicated RNTI.
 12. The terminal according to claim 10,wherein the computer program is further executed by the processor toimplement: if the non-scheduling DCI is received on the first PDCCH,feeding back acknowledgement ACK information; or if the non-schedulingDCI is not received on the first PDCCH, feeding back negativeacknowledgement NACK information.
 13. The terminal according to claim12, wherein a start time of the step of determining, based on thenon-scheduling DCI, whether to monitor a second PDCCH is one of thefollowing: a slot next to a slot in which the non-scheduling DCI islocated; a slot subsequent to a time gap after a slot in which thenon-scheduling DCI is located, wherein the gap is predefined or isconfigured by the network device; and an M^(th) slot after a slot inwhich the ACK information is located, wherein M is a positive integer.14. The terminal according to claim 10, wherein the non-scheduling DCIcomprises a first indication field used to indicate at least one of thefollowing of the terminal or a terminal group to which the terminalbelongs: not monitoring the second PDCCH within a first transmissiontime; monitoring the second PDCCH within a second transmission time ornot; a monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH; a connecteddiscontinuous reception CDRX parameter; and monitoring the second PDCCHbased on received target signaling, wherein the target signaling isdifferent from the non-scheduling DCI, and the target signaling is usedto indicate a monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH.
 15. Theterminal according to claim 14, wherein the non-scheduling DCI uses adedicated DCI format; or the non-scheduling DCI uses one of presetscheduling DCI formats or preset non-scheduling DCI formats; whereinwhen the non-scheduling DCI uses one of the preset scheduling DCIformats, the indication field comprises at least one of the followingfields in the preset scheduling DCI format: a hybrid automatic repeatrequest process number field, a redundancy version field, a modulationand coding scheme field, and a resource block assignment field; orwherein the first indication field is used to indicate that themonitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH is one parameter in amonitoring parameter candidate set, and the monitoring parametercandidate set is indicated by the network device by using radio resourcecontrol RRC signaling; or wherein the monitoring parameter related tothe second PDCCH comprises at least one of a monitoring period, amonitoring offset, and monitoring duration.
 16. A network device,comprising a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in thememory and capable of running on the processor, wherein the computerprogram is executed by the processor to implement: sending a firstphysical downlink control channel PDCCH, wherein the first PDCCH carriesnon-scheduling downlink control information DCI, and the non-schedulingDCI is used to indicate whether a terminal is to monitor a second PDCCH.17. The network device according to claim 16, wherein a cyclicredundancy check CRC of the non-scheduling DCI is scrambled by using atarget radio network temporary identifier RNTI, and the target RNTI is acell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI or a dedicated RNTI. 18.The network device according to claim 16, wherein the computer programis further executed by the processor to implement: receivingacknowledgement ACK information, wherein the ACK information is used toindicate that the terminal has received the non-scheduling DCI on thefirst PDCCH; or receiving negative acknowledgement NACK information,wherein the NACK information is used to indicate that the terminal hasnot received the non-scheduling DCI on the first PDCCH.
 19. The networkdevice according to claim 16, wherein the non-scheduling DCI comprises afirst indication field used to indicate at least one of the following ofthe terminal or a terminal group to which the terminal belongs: notmonitoring the second PDCCH within a first transmission time; monitoringthe second PDCCH within a second transmission time or not; a monitoringparameter related to the second PDCCH; a connected discontinuousreception CDRX parameter; and monitoring the second PDCCH based onreceived target signaling, wherein the target signaling is differentfrom the non-scheduling DCI, and the target signaling is used toindicate a monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCH.
 20. Thenetwork device according to claim 19, wherein the non-scheduling DCIuses a dedicated DCI format; or the non-scheduling DCI uses one ofpreset scheduling DCI formats or preset non-scheduling DCI formats;wherein when the non-scheduling DCI uses one of the preset schedulingDCI formats, the indication field comprises at least one of thefollowing fields in the preset scheduling DCI format: a hybrid automaticrepeat request process number field, a redundancy version field, amodulation and coding scheme field, and a resource block assignmentfield; or wherein the network device indicates a monitoring parametercandidate set by using radio resource control RRC signaling, themonitoring parameter candidate set comprises at least one monitoringparameter related to the second PDCCH, and the first indication field isused to indicate one parameter in the monitoring parameter candidateset; or wherein the monitoring parameter related to the second PDCCHcomprises at least one of a monitoring period, a monitoring offset, andmonitoring duration.